The invention relates to a connector, comprising a housing of insulating material having a front wall and a bottom wall, a number of right-angled contact elements arranged in rows and columns, and at least one right-angled shielding plate arranged between two adjacent rows of contact elements.
GB-A-2 027 290 discloses a connector of this type, having three rows of right-angled contact elements, wherein the central row is a row of ground contact elements. The right-angled shielding plate is arranged between the central and outer rows of contact elements and interconnects the ground contact elements of the central row. This known connector requires a number of ground contact elements thereby reducing the density of signal contact elements. There is no shielding between columns of contact elements.
EP-A-0 446 980 discloses a connector, comprising a housing of insulating material, and a number of right-angled contact elements arranged in rows and columns, wherein signal contacts are enclosed by outer conductors and shielding plates are provided to improve shielding. The connector requires a number of ground contact elements for shielding thereby reducing signal contact density.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,611,867 discloses a connector, comprising a housing of insulating material, a number of straight contact elements arranged in rows and columns and a matrix of shielding plates. The connector is made as a coaxial multicore receptacle. A number of ground contact pins is required to contact the shielding plates.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,727 discloses a connector, comprising a housing of insulating material, a number of right-angled contact elements arranged in rows and columns and a number of shielding plates arranged between adjacent columns of contact elements. There is no shielding between rows of contact elements.
The invention aims to provide an improved connector of the above-mentioned type.
To this end the connector according to the invention is characterized in that a right-angled shielding plate is arranged between all adjacent rows or adjacent groups of rows of contact elements, and wherein adjacent columns or adjacent groups of columns of contact elements are separated by a vertical shielding plate, wherein the right-angled and vertical shielding plates are provided with slots receiving the vertical and right-angled shielding plates, respectively, wherein contact parts are provided for interconnecting the right-angled and vertical shielding plates.
In this manner a right-angled connector with a complete shielding of contact elements both in row and column direction is obtained.